Not Applicable
1. Field of the Invention
The invention pertains generally to electronic gaming systems and particularly to systems simulating the well-known game of bingo.
2. Background Information
The well-known game of bingo commonly involves a group of players and a caller, who calls or announces randomly selected indicia, which commonly comprise integral numbers within a predetermined range. Any called number may match one of the numbers on a patterned array, commonly called a xe2x80x9cfacexe2x80x9d, or xe2x80x9cpermutationxe2x80x9d or xe2x80x9cpermxe2x80x9d, that has been sold to a player. The most popular face is a 5xc3x975 array of integers from which the central integer is removed to provide a xe2x80x9cfreexe2x80x9d space. Each players of a conventional bingo game plays one or more such arrays during a given game by marking off called numbers (e.g., by means of a ink dauber that permanently obliterates the called number) that appear on any of those faces. Play continues until one of the players marks off a pre-announced winning pattern of numbers (e.g., five marked indicia, including the free space, in a straight line) and calls xe2x80x9cbingoxe2x80x9d. The caller, or other administrative employee of the bingo operator, then checks to see that the player""s allegedly winning permutation is a correct winning permutation, and authorizes a payout if it is. It will be recognized by those skilled in the gaming arts that the actual game of bingo is only one of a number of bingo-like games of chance wherein a player views a proximally displayed patterned array of indicia (e.g., a bingo card) that comprises a subset of all such indicia, monitors a master sequence of indicia from the set of all possible indicia (e.g., the sequence of called numbers) supplied by an operator of the game, marks those indicia from the master sequence that appear on his or her array (e.g., by daubing a printed integer with ink) and receives a payout if a correctly marked subset of the randomly generated sequence corresponds to a characteristic winning pattern of the indicia disposed on his or her local display (e.g., having all four corners covered on a regular bingo card). Generally speaking, in such bingo-like games the operator receives payment for each proximally displayable array of indicia from each of a plurality of players prior to generating the master sequence of indicia.
Many bingo players choose to play more than one face simultaneously, an arrangement commonly called xe2x80x9cN-on playxe2x80x9d, where N is the number of faces selected. Responsive to this practice, some bingo operators sell cards having multiple faces printed thereon, with up to an 18-on card being known. It is generally thought that even a skilled player can not simultaneously follow the course of the game on more than six faces. Hence, playing more than 6-on may inherently require the player to view sets of faces sequentially, which limits the speed at which the player can respond to calls.
Bingo-like games are commonly played in sessions comprising a sequence of games, each of which is played on cards separately designated (e.g., color-coded) for a particular game in the session. To facilitate multi-game play, the bingo game operator commonly provides one or more floor-walking salespersons who sell cards to the players before a bingo session begins and between the games that make up that session.
There have been many attempts in the prior art to provide an electronic simulation of a bingo session, but none have proven popular. These prior art attempts appear to have failed by using design features that were technically convenient but that did not adequately reproduce or simulate the experience of playing a conventional bingo game. Notable among U.S. patents in this area are:
Richardson, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,007,649; 5,043,887; 5,054,787; and 5,072,381 teaches an electronic bingo system in which a plurality of arrays of indicia, each corresponding to a separately displayable face, are downloaded from a central computer into a memory portion of a player""s electronic game board. A floor-walker""s validation terminal is used to validate a winning combination by means including receiving a unique game-specific code (which may conveniently be a serialized number known as a xe2x80x9cpermutation numberxe2x80x9d associated with a particular algorithm for generating the set of all permutations of allowable indicia) from the allegedly winning game board. Richardson""s game board comprises a card display and a keypad. The use of the keypad to enter called numbers is not simulative of the physical marking of paper cards. Moreover, Richardson""s game board displays only a single face and thereby fails to facilitate N-on play.
Itkis, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,478,084, teaches a mechanical bingo machine that displays multiple playable faces at one time (e.g., a 6-on card) and that uses a permanent magnet to move suspended ferromagnetic particles from a hidden side of a display board to a visible side in order to make a white-to-black transition, simulative of an ink dauber being used, to mark called numbers.
Frain, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,230,514, teaches an electronic game board comprising 2-on to 18-on card displays and a plurality of player input means, including means to select a special game. Frain provides no way of changing the display on any one of the boards. A player who wants a different set of numbers is required to turn her board in for another one.
Matsumoto et al., in U.S. Pat. No. 5,755,619, show a casino bingo apparatus in which each player uses a touch-screen terminal hard-wired to a central unit. The central unit keeps score and uses conventional bingo balls to generate called numbers. The required wiring makes installation of Matsumoto""s apparatus expensive and essentially requires a dedicated facility.
A preferred system of the invention provides electronic equipment for playing a bingo-like game in a fashion closely simulative of the well known game of bingo played with paper cards. This preferred system comprises three main functional components including: a) a central computer that is used both to determine which sets of face-simulative numbers or other indicia are downloaded into players"" game boards and to reconcile cash received by a salesperson with the number of downloaded games authorized to be played; b) a plurality of players"" game boards, each of which is adapted to receive enabling messages from a sales unit, to display enabled sets of playable indicia simulative of a bingo card and to modify that display responsive to a player""s input; and c) the sales unit, which is adapted both to send an enabling message to a player""s game board responsive to a manual input from a salesperson, and to record each such enabling transaction for later upload to the central computer. It will be recognized by those skilled in the computer arts that a small system of the invention could comprise only two physically distinct types of components by using a plurality of game boards and a single operator""s computer that combined the functions of the base computer and the sales unit.
One of the features of a preferred embodiment of the invention is a player""s game board comprising an electronically controlled display and a player input means. The display is preferably a liquid crystal display (LCD) panel, adapted to display a plurality of arrays of indicia simulating a printed card. A particular preferred embodiment simulates a 6-on card display. In a further refinement of this embodiment, the apparatus comprises a 6-on display of playable faces, a reduced size and resolution display of at least a second 6-on set, as well as means usable by the player to select which of the 6-on sets is displayed at the higher resolution for active play.
Another of the features of a preferred embodiment of the invention is a switching arrangement for controlling a LCD display in a manner simulative of the use of a conventional ink dauber in marking a paper bingo card. In one preferred embodiment the switching arrangement comprises a permanent magnet disposed on a simulative dauber that cooperates with a Hall-effect, or other, magnetic field sensor disposed behind a display cell in which a selected one of the playable indicia is displayed. Bringing the dauber proximate to the display cell causes the sensor to provide an output to a display controller which replaces the previously displayed indicium with a modified one until the display is reset. This simulates the permanent marking of a printed bingo indicium with an ink dauber. It will be understood that a system of the invention may be configured to use any one of many other sensing arrangements for sensing the proximate presence of a marking device.
An additional feature of a preferred embodiment of the invention that is particularly compatible with the use of a proximity dauber is the use, in bingo game, of a sealed, liquid-tight housing preferably having no metallic electrical connections extending through it. Prior art electronic game boards that have not been sealed have sometimes failed in service when a player accidentally spilled a beverage onto the game board during the course of play.
In addition to the use of a sealed housing, several other features of preferred embodiments of the invention are also directed at ensuring that a game board does not fail during use. In service failure of prior art electronic game board has sometimes led to excited and hostile reactions from players who felt they had been cheated out of a victory. Principal among these other features is the provision of a redundant power supply arrangement in which electric power is normally supplied to the game board by a main, rechargeable, battery, but in which a back-up battery is automatically switched in to operate the game board whenever the main battery is discharged or otherwise becomes inoperative.
Yet another of the features of a preferred embodiment of the invention is the provision of a color-coded or pattern-coded game-indicating indicium or flag on a player""s game board. This flag is simulative of the use of different card colors or patterns printed on a paper bingo card and used to denote the game within a multi-game session in which that particular paper card is to be used.
Although it is believed that the foregoing recital of features and advantages may be of use to one who is skilled in the art and who wishes to learn how to practice the invention, it will be recognized that the foregoing recital is not intended to list all of the features and advantages. Moreover, it may be noted that different embodiments of the invention may provide various combinations of the hereinbefore recited features and advantages of the invention, and that less than all of the recited features and advantages may be provided by some embodiments thereof.